>> pelley: tonight, snapping point. the tow cable snaps on the cruise ship stranded at sea. ana werner talks to some of the 3,000 passengers who are at the end of their rope. >> there's raw siege on the can't, on every floor. it's the most repulsive place you would ever want to be. >> pelley: want pentagon orders cutses bought of the federal budget impasse. shipyard workers may be the fers to go. the beauty and the blade-- a sports hero is arrested in the murder of a model. mark phillips has the story. and anthony mason with history for sale, memories of the life and death of a president. >> 12: 52, 1:00, my president is dead. captioning sponsored by cbs

this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening. 4,000 people who have been adrift at sea for four days are finally nearing shore tonight. this is a live image of the carnival cruise ship "triumph" as she is towed in to mobile bay, alabama, this evening. she is expected to dock in just a few hours. she left galveston, texas, a week ago, loaded with her maximum 3,143 passengers and a crew of 1100. the brochure described a four-day cruise in the caribbean, but an engine room fire left her adrift and powerless. all aboard have suffered in squalid conditions, stranded as carnival slowly brought the ship in. we sent ana werner out today for an early look. >> reporter: when we flew over the carnival "triumph" it was within sight of shore but still

seven hours away from the dock. from up here, we can can see a lot of people waving. we can see what appeared to be signs made out of bed sheets. one of them down there on one of the balconies says, "s.o.s.-- save our ship." at this point, it's the passengers that need saving. the shape has been without power since an engine room fire five days ago. we reached passenger jacob combs on the phone. >> the really bad part is that there was no running water in toilets for almost the first 30 hours. once they finally did get running water, the toilets only worked in certain place pips would say it's the worst smell imaginable. >> reporter: e-mailed photos reveal squalid conditions. many passengers used red plastic bags as toilets. hands slept in hallways or tops side to escape the foul and stagnant air below deck. carnival c.e.o. jerryica hail insifts passengers were nerf at

risk, but 22-year-old leslie mayberry disagreed. >> it was leaning to one side. it was literally like walking uphail whenever the boat was leaning. i mean, it was very scary. a the lo of people thought we were going to just tip over and sink. and than you look out on the deck, and the ocean, and there's no one. you're just by yourself, and you're so alone, even though you're around 3,000 other people on the boat, you're just alone. >> reporter: a tow line pulling the 14-story-tall shape snapped, delaying today's operation. it was reattached but it will be nightfall before the shape arrives at the terminal where relatives are waiting. nellie betts cape from tupelo, mississippi, to meet her daughter. >> there's no reason why those people sash out there as long as they have. why? i don't understand why. what has taken them so long to get them home? >> reporter: once the ship arrives at the terminal children is hered. me, carnival plans to put most of those passengers on a two-hour bus ride to new orleans

or even to galveston, texas, but some are already saying, no thanks. tscott, they have relatives picking them up here so cake go straight home. >> pelley: a long odyssey. anne ayou thank you very much. that budget dispute in washington is about to have a very real effect on the people who build and repair our military ships. that industry says 100,000 jobs in several state are on the line because the navy is planning on delay the repair of nearly two dozen ships. the official announcement is coming tomorrow. wyatt andrews has more. >> reporter: tens of thousands of workers just in the shipyards of virginia are at risk of losing their jobs because of the budget cuts. one of them is mike patterson, a pipe fitter at b.a.e. systems. >> the major concern is the layoffs pap these jobs going out, there won't be any coming in behind them. >> reporter: so when these sheps leave, the work runs out?

>> the work runs out. >> reporter: the navy's budget cuts of $10.3 billion will fall hardest in the shipyards and involving the cancellation of maintenance and modernizations on 22 warships this year. bill clifford is friday of b.a.e. systems ship repair. what does that mean? >> it's catastrophic to our industry, to our employees, and equally as important to the readiness of those ships. >> reporter: clifford says some navy destroys and cruisers will lose critical upgrades to their weapons systems. >> if we don't do that, we are sending a ship out in harm's way that is-- may not be as fit to fight as it should be. >> reporter: it's less capable as a warship? >> yes, because it doesn't have the current upgrades to fight the most current threats. >> reporter: the formal cancellation of shipyard contracts starts tomorrow. layoffs could start in may, but the anger of workers like mike patterson is aimed at washington now. >> if we don't do our job we get

written up for it. who is writing congress up for not doing their job? >> reporter: defense department officials have wander congress for months that the combination of budget cuts and sequestration were real and now those warnings are about to get very real. scott, as for congress not doing its job, that's not going to improve any time soon. in fact, all of next week, congress has put itself on recess. >> pelley: wyatt, thank you very much. and those budget cuts, known as sequestration, come in two weeks unless the president and congress find another way. president obama's nomination of chuck hagel to be secretary of defense has been blocked in the senate tonight. in a rare move, republicans are filibustering to prevent a vote on hagel. congressional correspondent nancy cordes is following all the of this. nancy. >> reporter: scott, hagel's nomination is not dead, but this does mean the democrats cannot move forward with a vote to confirm him right now. they can try again after that

week-long recess that wyatt just mentioned, and republicans have signaled that they might step out of the way then but there's no guarantee. >> pelley: cabinet nominations have only been stopped with filibusters three times in our history. why did the republicans take this step? >> reporter: well, some of them feel that this vote is being rubbed, that they still have questions about hagel's suitability to be secretary of defense while others think blocking this vote is their best leverage to get more information out of the white house about the benghazi attacks last september. democrats call it a fishing expedition, scott, designed to embarrass both the white house and hagel himself. >> pelley: nancy, thank you. one of the bright stories of the london olympics took a dark turn today. south african oscar pistorius, who ran with carbon fiber blades in place of the legs that he lost as a child, was arrested today in the murder of his girlfriend. we have more from mark phillips. >> reporter: he was the blade

runner, the poster boy for disabled athletes. she was the glamorous cover girl, super model and reality tv star. together, reeva steenkamp and oscar pistorius were the glamour couple on the south african social circuit. now, she is dead, multiple gunshot wounds to the head and body. and he's hiding his face in police custody. pistorius had spoken of his high hopes for his then-new girlfriend late last year. >> are you dating anyone special? >> i am seeing someone. she's a wonderful girl. >> reporter: south africa is a violent place. guns are everywhere, including in oscar pistorius' house. the blade runner's success, both on the paralimpic circuit and racing for the first time in the london olympics against able-bodied athletes has earned him a lot of money. he's a prime burglary target and in this square gated community

is said to keep a revolver by his bed and a member gun by his bedroom window. police spokesperson denise beukes says there's been domestic trouble at the pistorius place before. >> i can confirm there have previously been incidents at at the home of mr. oscar pistorius. >> reporter: and witnesses heard shouting presegd the gunfire this time. pistorius was the bullet in the chamber, one of his last ads ironically claimed. now he's a feel-good story gone bad and steenkamp with a life cut short in its prime. oscar pistorius has made sp scott, are expected to be delivered in court tomorrow. >> pelley: mark, thank you. we're now learning more about that fired los angeles police officer, christopher dorner. and the killing spree that left four people dead, including two cops. the first victims were killed in irvine, california, and

investigators looking through a trash bin there have discovered dorner's badge, i of a police uniform and high-capacity ammo magazine. carter evans has the latest on this investigation. >> reporter: the final hours of the manhunt for christopher dorner began when jim and karen reynolds opened the door of one of their rental condos. >> we had the living room and he opened the door and came out at us. >> to see that big gun stick up there. >> yeah. he had his gun drawn the whole time. >> he had the gun drawn. >> reporter: a man believed to be dorner tied them up. >> he talked to us, trying to calm us down, and saying very frequently he would not kill us. >> reporter: he then took their car. >> we listened for probably a minute or two to make sure he was gone. it sounded quiet. so then we started struggling trying to get loose. ( gunfire ). >> reporter: they called 911, triggering a chain of events that ended with tuesday's shoot-out in which two sheriffs

deputies were shot. 35-year-old jeremiah mackay died from his wounds. the firefight we witnessed was intense. we were forced to take cover but we left our cell phone on. early in the standoff, you could hear officers suggesting burning the suspect out. >> get going, right now! >> bun it! >> reporter: four more hours would pass before police used high-powered tear gas. the canisters are known to be a fire hazard. san bernardino county sheriff john mcmahon. >> i can tell you it was not on purpose. we did not intentionally burn down that cabin to get mr. dorner out. >> reporter: a burned body was found in the ashs. it's unclear if the calls of death was from the fire or a single gunshot we heard moments after the cabinet ignited. and that body has yet to be identified. we asked the san bernardino dannyo county sheriff's department about the audio we recorded and, scott, they declined to comment. >> pelley: carter, thank you.

one woman spoke up for veterans. now is the government punish of punishing her for telling the truth? and a new medical device could help the blind regain some vision when the cbs evening news continues. by keeping my airways open for 24 hours. plus, it reduces copd flare-ups. spiriva is the only once-daily inhaled copd maintenance treatment that does both. spiriva handihaler tiotropium bromide inhalation powder does not replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden symptoms. tell your doctor if you have kidney problems, glaucoma, trouble urinating, or an enlarged prostate. these may worsen with spiriva. discuss all medicines you take, even eye drops. stop taking spiriva and seek immediate medical help if your breathing suddenly worsens, your throat or tongue swells, you get hives, vision changes or eye pain, or problems passing urine.

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medical specialists on orders from the president. it might not have happened had a v.a. psychologist not sound an alarm, but now elaine quijano tells us, that psychologist says she's being punished. >> it did weigh on me pretty heavily. i felt like as a therapist i'm not doing what i was trained to do. >> reporter: psychologist michelle washington says in 2011, the wilmington, delaware, veteran's hospital was overwhelmed by the number of troops returning from war with p.t.s.d. >> there was a massive delay in the treatment. often what happens, they start self-medicating with drugs or alcohol, and they don't come back, and they end up getting lost in the system and lost out there in the world without the help. >> reporter: here at the v.a. hospital where she works, washington says her concerns were ignored by supervisor, so she accepted an invitation to appear before the senate veterans affairs committee. but after she requested time off to testify, she received the first and only unsatisfactory performance rating of her

five-year career at the v.a. >> i remember going to my office and almost on the verge of tears, i had to really kind of grasp-- pull myself together because i had a patient waiting for me. >> reporter: we reviewed each of washington's performance ratings. she was rated "outstanding" on all of them except this one. it resident, "she does not use her supervisory channels to address issues with the p.t.s.d. program. are you afraid you might lose your job giwasn't really worried about what might. thank you for the opportunity to testify. >> reporter: risking her career, washington, whose father was a navy veteran, spoke her mind. >> too often, i am told that the patient will have to wait as long as six weeks for the first appointment. >> reporter: after the hearing, she says the retaliation continued when she was stripped of her core duties, screening new patients for p.t.s.d.and traumatic brain injury. >> i think it's wrong won't iraq war veteran vincent shavico is one of washington's former painters. >> she cares about the people.

that's what her whole focus is, taking care of the troops that come back. >> reporter: in a statement, the v.a.y of denied it retaliated against dr. washington saying, "v.a. does not tolerate retaliation and reprisal against any employee." given what you know now, would you still testify? >> i think i probably would do it again. >> reporter: why? >> because somebody needed to do it. and my dad and i were really close. he would always tell us if you did the right thing for the right relationship, eelbe proud of you. i think he's up there in heaven proud of me. >> reporter: five months after michelle washington testified, the v.a.'s inspector general found she was right. it said the v.a. did not provide patients with "timely mental health care." scott, washington says her duties have not been fully restored. >> pelley: quite a story, elaine. thanks. we'll be back in just a moment.

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officials say u.s. government and business networks are attacked thousands of times every day. manneddian founder kevin mandia, says more than 90% of the attacks he sees come from china and are nearly impossible to stop. >> we've gone from a "we must prevent every attack from occurring" to more the mindset are, "these attacks are inevitable but let's make sure we keep the attackers from our crown jewels." >> reporter: you're saying we shouldn't spend all that much time trying to prevent everything because it can't be done. >> right now you can't do it. >> reporter: mandia says cyber defenses can be improved if companies share more information about the weak-ins. >> everybody needs to get smarter from each breach. almost like a neighborhood watch. we'd all get smatter about that robbery. >> reporter: but companies want some legal protections before sharing information. they're worried revealing details of attacks cowl weaken them with competitors and expose

them to investor lawsuits. cyber spies have already stolen hundreds of billions of dollars in corporate secrets everything from plans for military hardware to paint formulas. but mandia warns hackers could do even greater damage. some people have suggested if a cyber enemy can get into our system and they've proven they can do that. >> right. >> reporter: but they already have the ability to manipulate it oak boston area it, do you think that's true zoo that is true. these attack version full control of the systems they're intruding into. if their purpose was destroy the systems, they could have destroyed the systems. >> reporter: the only thing stopping an attack on a key piece of infrastructure maybe is they haven't tried to do it. >> that hasn't been their mission. that's reason it hasn't happened yet. >> reporter: there is broad agreement a devastating cyber attack it likely at some point, but, scott, congress has been unable at some point to pass a cyber protection bill the industry supports. >> pelley: the f.d.a. approved

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>> pelley: finally tonight, no one was closer to president kennedy than his longtime aide, dave powers. after powers died in 1998, his family discovered a treasure trove of history that he'd acquired over the years, and this weekend, it's going up for auction. we asked anthony mason to give us a look. >> reporter: for all of john f. kennedy's political life, from his first campaign for congress in 1946 through his presidency, dave powers was at his side. >> they were literally together every day. they traveled together on every campaign trip. dave was with him every tempt way. >> reporter: in the white house, says auction appraiser dan meader, he was the president's personal assistant. >> the desk you see in the photograph, the seal that hung over his desk, the flag was actually right here. >> reporter: also up for sale sunday at john mcginnis auctioneers in amesbury, massachusetts, are the

presidential banner flown on official motorcades. the pen kennedy used to order the interception of soviet ships during the cuban missile crisis, and the president's air force one bomber jacket which has the highest estimate in the sale-- $20,000 to $40,000. >> it's hard ton what these things are really going to bring. >> that's the beaut of an auction. >> reporter: but meadeer, who cataloged the thousands of items says one moved him especially. >> it's getting late and i'm going through file after file and box after box, and i open up the schedule. >> reporter: the official schedule of the president's trip to dallas, november 22, 1963. powers was riding in the secret service car behind the president that day, taking pictures before his film ran out. >> this was taken at 12:17. this was the last photograph that dave took. >> reporter: 13 minutes later, power's schedule notes, "j.f.k. shot." minute by minute, he would detail the entire day. >> 12:52, parkland hospital.

1:00, my president is dead. 2:15, carried casket aboard air force one. >> reporter: powerses who went on to run the kennedy presidential library stayed close to the president's widow. there are some 60 letters and notes from jackie up for auction, none more touching than this one. >> you open the front cover and read that. >> nonetheless a legderbound book of presidential inaugural speeches mrs. kennedy wrote, "for dave powers. the president was going to give you this for christmas. please accept it now from me. you and i will miss him most." power's mementos tell the story of a political life that ended tragically and of a trendship that never died. anthony mason, cbs news, amesbury, massachusetts. >> pelley: and that's the cbs evening news for tonight. for all of us at cbs news all around the world, good night. captioning sponsored by cbs

tonight police are desperately searching for whoever killed an elderly man inside his own home. alexandria police now say that the 94-year-old was murdered in his home. surae chinn has the latest on the investigation. >> it's just hard to imagine at 94 as feeble and fragile as he was that somebody would take his life. he couldn't have harmed a flee. >> reporter: carol remembers her neighbor fondly and doesn't understand who would want to harm elmer, who everyone knew as joe. >> he was very sweet, very kind. he was 94. very generous, very thoughtful.